Occultic;Nine Volume 2

by Chiyomaru Shikura

  130: Anonymous Reporting Live

  Did anybody from 2chan ever want to meet up there? I bet you could find something if you checked the backlogs. Like, maybe somebody set up a group suicide from here, or something like that?

  133: Anonymous Reporting Live

  >>130

  Get thee to the Occult Boards! They’re filled with that shit. “Let’s all meet in real life and summon a dangerous spirit,” or, “Let’s meet in real life and face off with a demon,” or something like that. Or, “Let’s go vandalize a haunted area,” or stuff. Maybe one of those idiots did something and pissed off the spirits and got themselves killed.

  134: Anonymous Reporting Live

  I live in Kichijoji, and I’ve been hearing ambulance and patrol car sirens all day. Even if there’s nothing they can do about that, the media helicopters are annoying as fuck. How many of them are there?

  158: Anonymous Reporting Live

  I’m here at Inokashira Park! The cops got pissed and told me not to go in, lol

  The park feels five degrees colder than the rest of the area. Is it my imagination? It’s so cold I started shaking. It wasn’t this cold five minutes ago.

  161: Anonymous Reporting Live

  Actually, I saw the ghost of a soldier at Inokashira Park two months ago!

  166: Anonymous Reporting Live

  Is it true that a lot of the media there are just passing out ’cause they’re sick?

  171: Anonymous Reporting Live

  Why Inokashira Park, anyway? If you wanted to ditch a body, you’d be able to hide it a lot better in the mountains or ocean than in a busy place like that. There must have been some reason they had to put the bodies there. And it probably has something to do with all the weird crap that’s been going on in Kichijoji for the last few months.

  183: Anonymous Reporting Live

  You mean a ley line or something running under Kichijoji? I’ve never heard anything like that. Was there any kind of spiritual connection in that town? I just glanced through the comments and realized that more people than I thought were into occult stuff.

  “Maybe every commenter here is a dedicated reader of mine!” No, that doesn’t matter.

  There was a vigorous debate going on, but all of them were just guessing. None of them had any useful information. I went back in front of the TV.

  The editor-in-chief was using the remote to flip through the channels. Every one of them had interrupted their programming to report on the news.

  “I’m here in front of Musashino Police Station.” The screen was showing the street in front of the station.

  A female reporter was holding a clipboard and looking at the camera with a serious expression.

  “There was just an announcement from the police. None of the bodies so far have shown any signs of external trauma. I repeat. None of the bodies found so far have shown any signs of external trauma.”

  No wounds? Then they were killed by poison or drowning... Or maybe... a curse?

  No way. I’d never heard of anyone killing a hundred people with a curse.

  “Inokashira Park remains sealed off, and the officers are still doing their best—”

  “I saw it! I saw it!” Suddenly, I heard a girl’s high-pitched yell from the TV.

  The reporter looked surprised, and then turned to look outside the frame. The camera followed her. There was a chubby woman in her early forties coming towards the reporters and shouting something in a loud voice.

  This was totally unplanned. The reporters all looked annoyed to have their broadcasts interrupted.

  But the woman ignored them and kept on screaming. “Last night! I saw them! There were people going into the lake!”

  Was she a witness? The reporters all started to whisper, and all the cameras turned towards her.

  “What do you mean, ‘going into the lake’? Be more specific!” They started to shout questions at her.

  She grabbed one of the microphones that were pointing at her and began to yell, flinging saliva everywhere. “There’s nothing ‘specific’ about it! I live in a condo there, and I saw the whole thing from my veranda on the eighth floor! The park was dark, but I could tell there were people there! It felt like there were a lot of people walking through the darkness. I’ve been living here for thirty years, and nothing like that has ever happened before! The place is usually empty at night, you see. Sometimes groups of rowdy teens will have parties and stuff, but what happened yesterday was totally different. The whole park was quiet. It was as quiet as it always is, but I could just tell that there were all these people! There’s lights at the front of the park, you know?! And I could see all these people walking under them into the park! Just like they were going for a walk! They jumped over the fence and walked right into the lake! While wearing their clothes, too! They went into the lake... and they didn’t come out!”

  What she said didn’t make any sense. The woman was very excited, and it was hard to make out exactly what she was saying.

  “Do you mean they all killed themselves?” The head editor whispered as he looked at the screen.

  The reporters started peppering her with questions. “Tell us more about the people who were going into the lake.”

  “There were men and women! And some of them were even children!”

  “Do you mean they went into the lake in groups? Groups of how many?”

  “No, they went in alone! One at a time!” The woman seemed irritated as she answered. “They all came to the park one by one! And not all at the same time, too! I saw the whole thing from my veranda! It was creepy and scary, but I was so freaked out by it I couldn’t sleep! I ended up watching it from 1:00 AM last night until morning! Every five minutes or so, one or two people would walk right in and then go into the lake!”

  “What?” Was that... possible?

  “Did you count how many there were?!”

  “Why didn’t you call the police?”

  “Call the pol— I couldn’t do that! It was... It didn’t seem real! I thought maybe they were filming a movie or something! I mean... I mean they all just walked straight into the lake, like it was most normal thing in the world! One at a time, like they were all waiting their turn! Nobody making a fuss! You couldn’t even imagine while you were watching it that over a hundred people died!” The woman finally broke down and started to cry.

  What she said seemed so unreal that the reporters didn’t seem to know what to do. “A-Ahem... It appears that this woman is a resident of a condominium near the park. This is all so sudden that we’re not sure what to do. The police statement says they’re still looking for witnesses. Is this new information then? Um... let’s just send you back to the studio.”

  But even back at the studio, the newscasters and guest commentators were too shocked to speak. It was impossible to believe what the woman had said, but if it was true, this was a group suicide.

  “Um, sir, can we assume this is possibly some kind of group hypnosis?”

  “Y-Yeah. Anyway, this is huge! Hey, Hirata! Get some people together and get your butts to Kichijoji!” Hirata hurriedly got ready to leave.

  “Mumuu’s going to cover this?”

  “Huh? What did you say?” The editor-in-chief asked, his eyes still glued to the screen.

  “Is Mumuu going to cover this? You’re the one who said we weren’t a gossip magazine.”

  “You can complain after you’re done. For now, we need to act, or we won’t learn anything!”

  “You’re right. Should I go, too?”

  “Sheesh! What the hell’s going on?” He didn’t answer. He was lost in thought.

  It was true that what the woman had said was clearly something that Mumuu should investigate. I’d actually had goosebumps for the last few minutes. “Should I go talk to the woman on the news just now?!”

  “Sumikaze! Get to looking!”

  “Oh, right! Understood!”

  I’d never seen him in such a hurry before. I quickly got ready to go. There
were a bunch of things I wanted to check with the head editor before I left, but he was too busy dealing with others to answer my questions. I gave up and left the editorial office.

  site 36: MMG

  “Explain the meaning of this! Do you think you can get away with something so forceful?” Hatoyama stood up so angrily that his chair almost went flying. It was rare for the normally peaceful Hatoyama to get so worked up.

  But in a sense, it was to be expected. The Inokashira Lake incident was even more of a surprise to them than the Dr. Hashigami matter. Takasu, standing across from the men, was the only person in the room who was calm. Because—

  “Takasu, is it true that you did this all of your own volition?!” Matoba said, with a stern look on his face.

  Takasu nodded without changing his expression. “That’s true.”

  “Who the hell do you think you are?! You may be the man in charge of this project, but that doesn’t mean you can get away with doing whatever you want!”

  “You’re the one who said that we could get away with being a little forceful, Mr. Hatoyama. We had a choice to continue or discard the experiments. And I thought that we’d come to a mutual understanding as to which was our priority. In light of our objective, I decided that this was the appropriate response.” Takasu didn’t get angry, nor did he beg for mercy. It was as if he was saying that there was nothing wrong with what he’d done.

  “The plan was supposed to be to move to phase two in stages. You can’t just ignore that and discard the entirety of phase one! That’s insane!” Most of the seated men seemed just as upset as Hatoyama.

  Takasu realized this, and sighed. “If you just let your guinea pigs run free, sometimes they might bite,” he began to speak in his usual dramatic voice. No one seemed to know quite what to make of this. “You’re free to call them ‘high-spec,’ if you like, but I see things differently. Our feral guinea pigs are a threat to the entire plan itself. The bugs in the first generation had only been found in a few individuals so far, but that was just an early warning sign. Given time, there was plenty of chance that the number might rise to two digits, or three. Think of a cage filled with guinea pigs, and then a few of them get sick. If you leave them alone, soon the rest will be sick as well. There was a need to deal with things rapidly.”

  “And so you destroyed the whole cage, is that it?” Hatoyama’s words were a cross between a question and a moan.

  The decision was such an extreme one that there was no easy way for the seated men to tell if it was right or wrong.

  “It makes sense, but...” Matoba, a doctor and a scientist, attempted to express his reluctant understanding, but Hatoyama was still unsatisfied.

  “Even making allowances for that, so many people, all at once? Even I can’t cover you there. You’ve gone too far on your own.”

  “Do we need a moment of silent prayer, perhaps?”

  Hatoyama gritted his teeth at Takasu’s provocations. “I’m not here to discuss the value of the guinea pigs’ lives. You know damn well how many people are involved in the cleanup each time something happens.”

  “There’s no need for you to trouble yourself with anything. The mind control via the ‘occult’ is still working just fine. Weren’t you the one who said that?”

  “...”

  “The Japanese put a higher emphasis on ‘fitting in’ than on any other factor, no matter how insane the situation around them may be. Am I wrong?”

  No one complained.

  Takasu looked at their expressions as if enjoying it, and then said in a loud voice, “The first generation has finished their role. We will move up our original plans and advance to the second phase.”

  site 37: Yuta Gamon

  “Death Toll at Inokashira Park Rises to 256 Victims, Investigation Ended”

  From Asayomi Newspaper

  Yesterday, multiple bodies were discovered inside Inokashira Park. The Musashino police have spent the last day doing a full search of the park, and have come to the conclusion that the total number of victims is 256.

  Attempts to identify the bodies are currently underway. Right now, thirty-four have been identified.

  The majority of the victims drowned to death, and none suffered any external trauma. The Musashino Police Department stated that as no crime had been committed, they do not plan to investigate the matter further.

  ■NEET God

  Huh? No crime? Is that some kind of joke?

  Sure didn’t see that coming lolol

  The media seems intent on using the mass hypnosis theory to control public opinion

  What do you losers think? Okay, Basariters, go ahead and rip this thing apart.

  1: The Anonymous Samurai

  This is some crazy shit. Frost Prist.

  3: The Anonymous Samurai

  I lol’d at the no crime thing. It’s so obviously a cover-up.

  10: The Anonymous Samurai

  The number 256 is no coincidence. Somebody definitely picked that number. This isn’t an accident.

  14: The Anonymous Samurai

  So they aren’t investigating it? They’re really not gonna look at it at all? The cops can’t expect to get away with this shit.

  20: The Anonymous Samurai

  It’s actually weirder how fast they made that decision. They could at least look for a little. They dredged the lake but there’s no sign of them looking at anything else. So how can they be sure it wasn’t a crime?

  22: The Anonymous Samurai

  No crime = accident

  Good, so much for the Kichijoji mass murderer, right? Good news. Good news.

  31: The Anonymous Samurai

  If this is an accident, what happened? Poison gas? Mass food poisoning? Doesn’t it make no sense that they aren’t explaining that?

  35: The Anonymous Samurai

  It’s a conspiracy! I smell a conspiracy!

  42: The Anonymous Samurai

  >>31

  Poison gas is a no-go. They said the cause of death was drowning. Not that I believe them, lol

  43: The Anonymous Samurai

  Even if the cause of death was drowning, that doesn’t mean there wasn’t gas. Maybe they ran into the water to escape the gas? Even if it was poison gas, it’s too early to assume it was a terrorist attack. There’s a possibility the gas came out from underground. It’s weird that the paper said “mostly drowned,” too.

  48: The Anonymous Samurai

  If they were able to give Inokashira a thorough search there should be a police announcement. One saying there was no poison gas found, right? If there was gas it would be clinging to the plant leaves and stuff. There’s a zoo and an aquarium in Inokashira Park too, so of course, the animals would die as well. But there’s been no announcement. So there’s no poison gas.

  52: The Anonymous Samurai

  Well, the mainstream media’s mass hypnosis theory makes sense, right?

  55: The Anonymous Samurai

  The problem is where did that hypnosis come from? Or did these 256 people get together somewhere and get high on something?

  57: The Anonymous Samurai

  You guys love your conspiracy theories. It’s easy to assume that mass hypnosis implies something evil, but there is such a thing as the placebo effect. We should also consider the possibility of innocent mass hypnosis affecting the subconscious. It doesn’t have to have been a cult or a fortune-teller either, there’s a chance they could’ve been hypnotized at a concert. At clubs they play lots of music at just the right tempo to put the audience in a trance. It’s the same thing as that.

  58: The Anonymous Samurai

  It’s not impossible, but it sure as hell ain’t likely. And I’ve heard that brainwashing and hypnosis can’t kill people. It can’t lead people to do things they don’t want to do.

  61: Sounds Like Bad News ◆iQ1CwzKqLM

  >>58

  There’s examples of cults committing mass suicide, like at that one temple. Doesn’t it depend on the environment and mental sta
te of the person being hypnotized?

  52: The Anonymous Samurai

  The way hypnosis works, the person won’t obey any orders they don’t want to follow. You’d need a big facility and a lot of time to do group hypnosis on over 200 people. You’d lock them all away from the outside world and have them live as a group, and gradually put them under more and more psychological stress. That’s the only way you could get an order to “kill yourself” to work. That’s basically what we call brainwashing.

  64: The Anonymous Samurai

  >>61

  You mean “The People’s Temple”? BTW I seriously suggest not googling it. I mean it. Definitely don’t watch the video. I’m not shitting you.

  65: Sounds Like Bad News ◆iQ1CwzKqLM

  >> 64

  I was avoiding the real name deliberately.

  .

  .

  Don’t blame me for what happens.

  67: The Anonymous Samurai

  If there was some kind of meeting or concert held around that time in Kichijoji, shouldn’t they be looking at that? Do you think the cops did?

  69: The Anonymous Samurai

  There’s the little theaters in Kichijoji. If you filled up Mitaka or Ogikubo, that would be a pretty big number.